Designed by: Jun Sasaki
In Moon Adventure the players are astronauts, scouring the surface of Earth’s satellite to gather supplies to keep them alive. But the moon is a hostile place…
The game is co-operative so players not only win or lose together, they must also work together to survive. From the starting base a series of rocks are laid face-down in a path the players’ astronaut pieces travel along. Everyone begins with three oxygen tanks, and on your turn you spend a single tank, which allows you to roll two or three dice for action points. Then you spend the action points (ap):
Moving a space along the path is 1ap
Gathering supplies is 3ap: pick up the rock in the path and replace it with an ’empty space’ chit.
Establishing an oxygen generation system (OGS) is 3ap: add an OGS to the path, adjacent to your current location.
Building a route (allowing you to skip over sections of the path) is 1ap: block a space on the path with a yellow cube. Because players ignore any occupied spaces when moving, having someone make the path back to base much faster can be vital.
Sharing kit with adjacently-positioned players is 1ap. This can save someone’s life if they’re out of oxygen.
And, if you end your turn on an OGS, you get to take a new oxygen tank for free. The oxygen is clearly critical in the moon’s atmosphere. But it’s also seeded with risk, because mixed in with the oxygen cards are the Magnetic Storms. If you draw one of these, you get no oxygen, and worse the OGS you’re stationed at is broken: the tile gets flipped over to its non-functional side. This is where things unravel, as anyone starting a turn with no oxygen at all expires, and everyone loses. So the game is about managing these moments, if you can, and gathering enough supplies to consider the mission a success once you’re all back at base. The game defines success or failure differently depending on the number of players, but if the harsh storms can be brutal and game-ending, there are other things that can work in your favour: everyone on the mission has a specific role card that gives them a benefit of some kind. Up to five OGS can be established on the path, creating various refill spots for your team-mates. And most critical of all, players can and must help each other out, especially when the magnetic storm sabotages best-laid plans. If everyone makes it home, then all reveal their collected supplies: green are good, but red are broken. Cross your gloved fingers and hope for the best.
None from your fellow astronauts - players work together.
Fairly low. Turns are generally quick and pauses tend to be everyone working together to figure out their best move.
It's more tactical than strategic. Reacting to the slings and arrows of fate is the core of the game, as action rolls vary, flipped oxygen cards risk a storm and the final reveal can be triumphant or... not.
It's a tough game to win, so you may like the challenge. But there's also much in-built variety in how it plays out, with randomness in dice rolls, card turns and even the path itself.
2-5
Players
10+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
I'm a fan of the original Deep Sea Adventure, so was keen to try the moon version. They're actually significantly different; in Moon you help each other, in Deep Sea Adventure the game is competitive and players deliberately sabotage. I like that Moon isn't just a new setting, but I actually prefer the older game: Moon Adventure is slightly more complex, slightly more fiddly, slightly longer, and prone to somewhat arbitrary endings when the turn of a card leads to a series of groans as you realise the jig's up and there's no way out. Deep Sea Adventure 's comparative simplicity and built-in finales are just more fun to me. But that's not to say Moon Adventure is a bad game - far from it. If your preference (or circumstances) suggest a co-op, it's a more than decent option, and like all OINK games come beautifully rendered in a tiny, portable box.